San Anton Palace | |
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Il-Palazz Sant'Anton | |
![]() San Anton Palace | |
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General information | |
Status | Intact |
Type | Palace |
Location | Attard, Malta |
Coordinates | 35°53′47″N14°26′48″E / 35.89639°N 14.44667°E |
Current tenants | President of Malta |
Named for | Anthony of Padua |
Construction started | c. 1600 |
Completed | c. 1625 |
Renovated | 18th–19th centuries |
Client | Antoine de Paule |
Owner | Government of Malta |
Technical details | |
Material | Limestone |
San Anton Palace (Maltese : Il-Palazz Sant'Anton) is a palace in Attard, Malta, that currently serves as the official residence of the president of Malta. It was originally built in the early 17th century as a country villa for Antoine de Paule, a knight of the Order of St. John. It was expanded into a palace following de Paule's election as Grand Master in 1623.
The palace was used as a residence by subsequent Grand Masters, being enlarged a number of times in the process. It was the headquarters of the rebel National Assembly during the uprising of 1798–1800, and it later became a residence for the civil commissioners, governors and governors-general of Malta. It was often used by British sovereigns and other royalty during their stay in Malta. It has been the official residence of the president since the office was created in December 1974.
The palace is surrounded by the extensive San Anton Gardens, parts of which have been open to the public since 1882.
In around 1600, Antoine de Paule, a knight of the Order of St. John from the Langue of Provence, acquired a piece of land in Attard and built a country villa. De Paule was elected Grand Master in 1623, and the villa was subsequently enlarged into a palace [1] in around 1625. [2] The palace was named San Anton after the Grand Master's patron saint, Anthony of Padua. [3]
De Paule planned the villa on generous proportions to provide accommodation for his guests and his large domestic staff which included cooks, food tasters, torch bearers, pantry boys, wig makers, a winder of the clocks, physicians, as well as a baker to make black bread for feeding his hunting dogs. [3]
Following de Paule's death in 1636, the palace remained in use as a residence by subsequent Grand Masters of the Order, since it was closer to the capital city Valletta than the Verdala Palace. Over the years, the building was expanded from having a T-shape into a Latin cross. [1]
During the French occupation of Malta and the subsequent Maltese uprising, the palace was the meeting place of the rebel National Assembly, which first met on 11 February 1799. In 1800, the palace became the residence of the first British civil commissioner, Admiral Sir Alexander Ball, who died at the palace in October 1809. [4]
The palace subsequently became the official residence of the governor and, later, governor-general of Malta. Some structural changes were made during British rule, including a reduction of the height of the tower after it was hit by lightning in 1819, [5] and the addition of a balustraded walk around the main courtyard. Parts of the palace's gardens were opened to the public in 1882. [1] San Anton has been the official residence of the president of Malta since the island became a republic in December 1974. [6]
Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was born at the palace on 25 November 1876, when her father Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, was stationed in Malta as a Royal Navy officer. [7]
Queen Elizabeth II stayed at the palace during her royal visits to Malta in 1954, 1967 and 2005. [8]
The palace and its gardens were included on the Antiquities List of 1925. [9] It is now a Grade 1 national monument, [6] [10] and it is also listed on the National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands . [1]
On 17 October 2018 a 50-metre-long (160 ft) stretch of a historic wall forming part of the palace collapsed. There were no injuries. Emergency work was undertaken to conserve the remaining part of the wall, which had been restored a few months before. [11] [12]
San Anton Palace is a two-storey building, with a high square tower which has panoramic views of the surrounding area. [1]
San Anton Palace contains two chapels, one dedicated to Our Lady of Pilar and another dedicated to St. Anthony. The Chapel of Our Lady of Pilar was built by Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena in the 18th century. [6] It consists of a barrel-vaulted nave, with ribs dividing the ceiling into six bays. The vault is decorated with the coats of arms of de Vilhena, and subsequent Grand Masters Manuel Pinto da Fonseca and Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc. The altar is set within a chancel separated from the nave by pilasters. [1]
The Chapel of St. Anthony, which is also known as the Russian Chapel, was built in the 19th century as a Protestant chapel. It was later converted to a Russian Orthodox chapel to accommodate Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, the wife of Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. It is larger than the Chapel of Our Lady of Pilar. [13] The chapel's denomination is now Roman Catholic, and it was restored in 2013. [14]
San Anton Gardens are laid out in a formal manner, with graceful walkways, sculptures, ornamental ponds with ducks, swans and turtles, and a small aviary. [1] The gardens contain a number of fountains, one decorated with a statue relocated from Argotti Gardens. [15]
The gardens contain a large variety of trees and flowers from around the world, including a variety of palm trees, cypress, jacarandas, araucarias and other exotic plants, some of them over three centuries old. [6] For many years it has been customary for visiting heads of state to plant a tree in memory of their stay in Malta. [8] The gardens also contain an orangery, [5] and it was once the practice of incumbent governors to give baskets of oranges grown in the palace gardens as gifts at Christmas time.
Parts of the gardens were first opened to the public in the early 19th century by Admiral Sir Alexander Ball. They were enriched by General The 1st Marquess of Hastings, the second governor of Malta, in the 1820s. [5] Lord Hastings, an Anglo-Irish aristocrat, had previously served as the governor-general of India. The gardens were reopened to the public in 1882. [1]
A number of events are held at San Anton Palace, including the annual Horticultural Spring Show. [16] The Malta Community Chest Fund, a charitable organization headed by the president, also occasionally holds fund-raising events at the palace. [17]
The President's Kitchen Garden is located across the street from San Anton Palace, close to Villa Bologna. While not being physically part of the palace, it is part of the property of the palace and under the president of Malta. It offers a privately contracted food retreat, and profits go to the Malta Community Chest Fund. [18]
San Anton Palace and its gardens probably influenced subsequent Grand Masters to build their own residences and gardens, such as Giovanni Paolo Lascaris, who built Ġnien is-Sultan in Valletta, [19] and António Manoel de Vilhena, who built Casa Leoni in Santa Venera. [20]
Attard is a town in the Central Region of Malta. Together with Balzan and Lija it forms part of "the Three Villages" and has been inhabited since the Classical Period. It has a population of 12,268 as of 2021. Attard's traditional Latin motto is Florigera rosis halo due to its many flower gardens and citrus orchards. Attard is abundant with public gardens. The inhabitants of Attard are known as saraċini.
Floriana, also known by its title Borgo Vilhena, is a fortified town in the Port Region area of Malta, just outside the capital city Valletta. It has a population of 2,205 as of March 2014. Floriana is the birthplace of many famous Maltese, amongst which the composer of the national anthem, 'L-Innu Malti', Robert Samut; former Bishop of Malta Dun Mauro Caruana, the poets Oliver Friggieri and Maria Grech Ganado, the writer and politician Herbert Ganado and Swedish Idol winner Kevin Borg.
The House of Wettin was a dynasty of German kings, prince-electors, dukes, and counts that once ruled territories in the present-day German states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The dynasty is one of the oldest in Europe, and its origins can be traced back to the town of Wettin, Saxony-Anhalt. The Wettins gradually rose to power within the Holy Roman Empire. Members of the family became the rulers of several medieval states, starting with the Saxon Eastern March in 1030. Other states they gained were Meissen in 1089, Thuringia in 1263, and Saxony in 1423. These areas cover large parts of Central Germany as a cultural area of Germany.
António Manoel de Vilhena was a Portuguese nobleman who was the 66th Prince and Grand Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem from 19 June 1722 to his death in 1736. Unlike a number of the other Grand Masters, he was benevolent and popular with the Maltese people. Vilhena is mostly remembered for the founding of Floriana, the construction of Fort Manoel and the Manoel Theatre, and the renovation of the city of Mdina.
Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was one of the Saxon Duchies held by the Ernestine line of the Wettin Dynasty. Established in 1699, the Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield line lasted until the reshuffle of the Ernestine territories that occurred following the extinction of the Saxe-Gotha line in 1825, in which the Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld line received Gotha, but lost Saalfeld to Saxe-Meiningen.
The Grandmaster's Palace, officially known as The Palace, is a palace in Valletta, Malta. It was built between the 16th and 18th centuries as the palace of the Grand Master of the Order of St. John, who ruled Malta from 1530 to 1798, and was also known as the Magisterial Palace. When the knights were expelled by Napoleonic France, it became the National Palace. During the period of British rule beginning in 1800, it was the Governor's Palace.
This page list topics related to Malta.
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The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry is the Catholic cadet branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, founded after the marriage of Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Princess Maria Antonia Koháry de Csábrág. Among its descendants were the last four kings of Portugal and the last three Tsars of Bulgaria. After the change of the “House laws” by Simeon II, the present head of the house is his sister Princess Marie Louise of Bulgaria, Princess of Koháry.
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Vilhena Palace, also known as the Magisterial Palace and Palazzo Pretorio, is a French Baroque palace in Mdina, Malta. It is named after António Manoel de Vilhena, the Grand Master who commissioned it. It was built between 1726 and 1728 to designs of the French architect Charles François de Mondion, on the site of the meeting place of the Università. The palace was used a hospital in the 19th and 20th centuries, and it became known as Connaught Hospital after 1909. Since 1973, it has been open to the public as Malta's National Museum of Natural History.
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Grand Master's Palace most often refers to:
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